The Owls missed head coach Mike Dodrill on Thursday night, but they made sure he was still involved.

SELMA, Ind. — The Burris volleyball team talked with head coach Mike Dodrill on Thursday night just as they would throughout any match — even though the head coach wasn’t actually in the building.

While Dodrill recovered in the hospital from a recent health issue, the Owls rolled to a sweep of Wes-Del in the Wapahani Sectional quarterfinals. The Owls, who advance to play Frankton in the semifinals Saturday, made sure their coach was as involved as possible, FaceTiming before the match and between sets. Dodrill watched the game live from the hospital using High School Cube.

“It was really exciting to get to tell him, ‘Yeah, we won the first set,’” Burris sophomore MyKel Ivy said.

“He was upset he couldn’t come, but he was very, very happy for us.”

Burris athletic director Chad Wlodarek declined to elaborate on Dodrill’s absence other than that the Burris community is praying for him.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with him, but I really can’t go into more detail,” Wlodarek said. “He really wanted to be here tonight, so we live broadcasted it and he watched it from the hospital.”

That left assistant coach Dave Harman in charge, who said it was easy to fill in for Dodrill because his job was just to “cheerlead and keep them focused,” as the Owls (20-14) have improved throughout the season under Dodrill.

“We talked tonight that we really needed to be playing with passion," Harman said, "knowing we wanted to get one for coach so that he can be here Saturday.”

When asked if Dodrill would be back Saturday, Harman said, “We’ll see what happens and we’ll move forward from there.”

Ivy, who entered the week 15th in the state in kills with 432, finished with 13, while Abby Ludwick added seven and Miya Morrison six to go along with 14 digs.

The Owls trailed in each of the first two sets but regrouped both times to win 25-20 before closing out the last set 25-16. In the second set, Burris trailed 9-6 before going on a 12-0 run with Kalyse Garrett at the service line — and Ivy on the bench.

“I was proud that once we got into a hole, we started to lift up each other and get ourselves out of it,” Ivy said. “We did very well as a team. We don’t yell at each other, don’t put each other down; we’re always positive and lifting each other up.”

Jaclyn Love tallied seven kills while Aerionna Strahan added six for Wes-Del, which will move back down to Class 1A next season due to the Success Factor Rule.

The Owls will look to keep it rolling on Saturday with or without their head coach, but they were glad to get this one just to give him a chance.

We really wanted to win this game for Dodge because he couldn’t be here today. It was really important to us.